Starting college is such an exciting time in life. I remember my own first day like it was yesterday, and somehow, I’m already starting my junior year. It’s crazy how quickly time passes. Just two years ago, I was packing up my entire life, preparing to move into a dorm with roommates I had never met, away from my family and everything familiar. As intimidating as that sounds, it marked the beginning of an entirely new and profound chapter of my life. Of course, I came into college knowing some things: beware of mold in the dorms, get a meal plan, go to office hours. And while that practical advice certainly helped, there was still so much I could only learn through experience. As I enter my junior year with graduation suddenly feeling closer than ever, there’s one thing I know for sure: Freshman year is less about figuring out who you are and more about permitting yourself to find out. Some lessons simply require trial and error, and that’s part of what moves us forward.
As our podcast explores the advice we would give to our freshman year selves and incoming college students, I wanted to reflect on some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past two years, and perhaps more importantly, the ones I’m still learning. After all, growing into yourself doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly, steadily, and often when you least expect it.
Struggling? Change the Strategy, Not the Goal
Giving up can feel easy when something gets hard, especially with challenging coursework and daunting assignments. As a Biomedical Sciences major, sometimes it feels like nearly every class I take is rocket science, and there have certainly been moments when I’ve felt too lost or simply not smart enough to keep going. But if college has taught me anything, it’s that struggling with something doesn’t necessarily mean you’re incapable of succeeding. Sometimes, you just haven’t found the strategy that works for you yet.
I’m one of those people who can’t just lock in the night before an Organic Chemistry exam and magically walk away with an A. I learned that the hard way. For me, succeeding in difficult courses means starting weeks in advance, working through countless practice problems with my peers until the concepts become second nature, and, most importantly, attending supplemental instruction sessions. This is one strategy I’ve found particularly helpful in challenging classes, and one I wish I had taken advantage of much earlier in college.
Sometimes, sitting in a massive lecture listening to a professor fly through material can leave you wondering whether he’s teaching you or simply rubbing it in your face that he has a Ph.D. But in a smaller group, where I can actively work through problems, ask questions, and receive more individualized help, my focus is sharper, and I’m far less likely to become bored or distracted.
It’s easy to look at someone who seemingly studies half as much and still scores higher than you and wonder why you can’t do the same. But a huge part of growing up in college is realizing that not everyone learns the same way. Nothing is embarrassing or wrong about needing to take a different, and maybe even longer, path to reach the same destination. Be proactive, figure out how you learn best, and seek out the resources that help you get there. Your path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s for it to lead you somewhere great.
Find Your People and Hold Onto Them
When I came to college, I knew I was going to make friends. Mingling with people has always come pretty naturally to me, so meeting new people was never a fear. What I didn’t expect was how profoundly my understanding of friendship itself would change. In high school, friendships could sometimes feel more surface-level or even transactional. That isn’t to say I didn’t genuinely love my high school friends, because I absolutely did. But there’s something different about friendship at that stage of life. At the end of the school day, most of us went home to our families, returned to our own routines, and had an established support system waiting for us. We were still kids, even if we didn’t always feel like it.
College changes that. Suddenly, you’re navigating adulthood away from the people and places that have always made you feel secure. Your parents aren’t down the hall when you’ve had a terrible day. You’re making bigger decisions on your own, dealing with harder classes, heartbreaks, homesickness, uncertainty, and all the strange growing pains that come with becoming an adult. Somewhere along the way, I noticed my friendships shifting from simply being a source of enjoyment to becoming a source of security. I met some of the most sincere, intentional, and genuine people. They taught me that friendship is so much more than having someone to go out with on a Friday night. It’s having people who celebrate your wins like they’re their own and sit beside you through your losses. It’s having each other’s backs, telling each other the truth even when it isn’t necessarily what the other person wants to hear, showing up when it matters, and occasionally loving each other enough to be tough when it’s needed. Slowly, the people who began as classmates, roommates, or random faces became the people I could rely on for just about anything. They became my second family.
That’s why one of my biggest pieces of advice to incoming freshmen is to put yourself out there, but also to be intentional about who you keep close. Some of the people you casually meet during your first few weeks of college could end up standing beside you at graduation, or even at your wedding years later. At the same time, remember that having a great social life isn’t about knowing the most people or being invited everywhere. There is a huge difference between quantity and quality. Find the people who make you feel supported, valued, understood, and safe enough to be completely yourself. College will give you plenty of opportunities to meet people. The special part is finding the ones who begin to make an unfamiliar place feel like home. And when you’re lucky enough to find those people, cherish them, show up for them, and hold onto them.
Let Your Plans Change Without Letting Your Ambition Go
I came into college pretty certain that I wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor. I loved science from a young age, and growing up in a medical family influenced how I pictured my future. Somewhere along the way, though, I began confining myself to a very specific mold. In my mind, there was one path that would make me successful, and that was becoming a doctor. Once I entered college, that picture became a lot more complicated. I started taking harder classes, learning about the realities of medical training through clubs and professionals, and gaining clinical experience of my own. For the first time, I began looking beyond the prestigious title and paycheck and understanding the enormous commitment that comes with pursuing medicine, one that I had underestimated for years. That didn’t mean I suddenly believed I couldn’t do it. Instead, I started asking a much more important question: Does the life attached to this goal align with the life I actually want to live?
At the same time, college gave me opportunities to discover strengths and interests I never knew I had. One of the most defining moments of my college career was publishing my first research paper in a medical journal. I remember thinking about the little girl I used to be and how she never would have believed that one day, her name would sit beside those of Ph.D.s on a published paper. It opened an entirely new world to me.
I quickly fell in love with health research and epidemiology. The field felt vast and full of possibility. There were unanswered questions to investigate, information waiting to be collected, and discoveries still waiting to be made. As someone who has always been creative, I had unexpectedly found an outlet where I could combine two parts of myself that I once thought were completely separate: my love of science and innovation with my strength and passion for writing.
And that realization taught me something I wish my freshman year self had understood: having a plan for your future does not mean you have to be confined by it. I may still become a physician, or my path may ultimately take me somewhere I never could have predicted at eighteen. Either way, I now understand that there are countless ways for me to build a meaningful and successful life in healthcare. Changing, questioning, or expanding your original plan doesn’t mean you’ve lost your ambition. Sometimes, it means you finally know yourself well enough to imagine something bigger. So, dream big. Have goals. Chase the things that excite you. But leave a little room for detours, too. College may not lead you exactly where your freshman self expected to go, and that might just be one of the best things about it.
One Last Thing Before Freshman Year
If I could tell my freshman year self one final thing, it would be to embrace everything that comes with growing into yourself: the challenges, the people, the unexpected detours, and even the mistakes. Two years later, I certainly don’t have everything figured out, and I don’t think I’m supposed to. College isn’t about becoming the person you planned to be when you first arrived. It’s about discovering all the people you never knew you could become. So, to every incoming freshman: keep an open mind, trust the process, and enjoy it while it lasts. You’ll be amazed by how much can change in just a few years.